On January 23, 2004, President Bush signed the DC School Choice Incentive Act into law. This landmark piece of legislation included $14 million in funding for what would come to be called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). The OSP is the first federally funded K-12 scholarship program in the country and is designed to provide…

The Iowa Curriculum Assistance System at the University of Iowa collects and disseminates curriculum materials and information and offers inservice workshops to vocational educators. A third-party evaluation of the system was made through a 3-day site visit by three experts who interviewed personnel from the system, administrators and faculty from…

A number of findings and recommendations regarding the mission of Private Industry Councils (PICs) under the Job Training Partnership ACT (JTPA) were developed based on information collected in several ways: a focus group of PICs, roundtable discussions held nationwide with staff from nearly 100 PICs in 45 states, and canvasses of more than 200…

A student opinion survey undertaken in the College of Education at Pennsylvania State University assessed reaction to the content and conduct of continuing education courses. The study's conclusions provide guidelines for the design of professional education courses for off-campus sites. (MW)

The essential feature of the Mentor Teacher Internship Program in New York City is the creation of a supportive, nonevaluative context in which an experienced mentor-teacher provides peer coaching to uncertified teachers to improve their effectiveness and increase their retention rate. This report presents the evaluation of the program by the New…

The Legal Education Goals and Learning (LEGAL) project in the Dade County Public Schools, Florida, is an elective course for students in grades 7-12. Because extensive annual evaluations of this project since 1976 had been extremely favorable, the size and scope of the 1984-85 evaluation was reduced. It investigated the extent to which LEGAL…

The research described in this report was conducted to (1) ascertain employers' perceptions of how well the telecommunications technology program at Skyline College (California) meets their needs; (2) determine what advanced-skills training would benefit students; and (3) provide a model for an employer follow-up study. Employers' names were…

The nature of five mentor-intern relationships was investigated throughout the 1987-88 school year in four different, formalized mentoring projects in upstate New York. Subjects consisted of pairs of more- and less-experienced teachers. Variables considered in selecting the pairs included age, experience, gender, race, content area, context,…

A growing body of literature and research examines the stress experienced by preservice teachers. This study hypothesized that preservice teachers would generally overrate their preparation, and experience no net change in comfort level over time. A questionnaire was administered to preservice teachers (N=54) prior to their initial 5-week…

A report is given of a study conducted to create a basis for necessary decision-making in the revision of a secondary methods course at Seattle Pacific University. A review of literature was conducted covering studies about secondary education, suggested practices and materials, and teacher effectiveness research on instruction, classroom…

Seven objectives were identified for the development of the Franklin County/Ohio State University Induction Project: (1) analyze existing research on beginning teachers and induction programs; (2) synthesize existing analyses of follow-up studies conducted in schools, colleges, and departments of education over the past decade; (3) synthesize…

A large-scale teacher internship project, the Initiation to Teaching Project, was implemented in the schools in Alberta, Canada, in September, 1985. The general purposes of the 2-year project were to provide employment in teaching for recently graduated teachers, and to assess the utility of a year-long program in which the transition from…

This policy study discusses two models of merit pay programs enacted in Florida: the Florida Meritorious Teacher Program and the Quality Instruction Incentives Program (QUIIP). Using the Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Herzberg et al.) as a theoretical framework, each program was analyzed from the perspective of how it worked as a motivator and source…

The purposes of this study are: (1) to investigate the attitudes of Florida Extension Service specialists toward in-service education evaluation; (2) to determine the extent to which extension specialists are evaluating in-service education programs for which they have responsibility; (3) to determine the kinds of in-service education evaluation…

The sources for this comprehensive study of the performance of first year teachers from Bowling Green State University (BGSU) were: (1) 62 first-year teachers who completed self-evaluation forms; (2) 24 BGSU faculty members who observed and interviewed the teachers; (3) 62 principals who rated the performance of the teachers; (4) 62 peer teachers;…